That is hard for you; good luck to you. Here also, such boys are
disadvantaged by their relation to stereotypes of women; they lose
status to the extent they are "like girls." That isn't as true of girls
who resemble the preferred status of boys. But to be a boy at all is to
be preferred in many ways that are not yet available to almost all
girls.
The conclusion educators and policymakers can draw is that the way best
to help all children is to reduce the gender inequity that disadvantages
all girls, heterosexual as well as lesbian, more than it disadvantages
homosexual, transsexual, or crossgender boys.
Sex, like race, cannot easily be hidden; it is a biological marker that
society decodes as gender. Homosexual and lesbian gender can be hidden;
such people can pass in straight society and thus can escape the direct
consequences of a possibly biological preference.
And it is also possible that homosexual and lesbian people, honored as
gatekeepers of change in many societies, will also help this society
break down the rigid stereotypes of gender that disadvantage girls.
Let's hope!
Linda Purrington
<lpurring@earthlink.net>
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